Indian airlines' FY25 loss to widen, capacity crunch to ease, says CAPA

Indian airlines are expected to post a bigger industry-wide loss in fiscal 2025 as higher costs outweigh rising demand and costlier tickets, a top aviation consultancy said on Wednesday. CAPA India estimated losses for the year ending March 2025 at between $400m to $600m. The industry reported a loss of $300m-$400m the previous year, helped by market leader IndiGo's record profit. Overall airline costs are expected to rise 3.8% in the fiscal year 2025, the consultancy added. It did not say how much they rose last year.<br/>India is currently the world's fastest-growing aviation market with demand surpassing the supply of planes. That has helped the industry report record yields as carriers charge higher fares due to a capacity crunch, resulting in more packed planes, measured in passenger load factor (PLF). CAPA said it expects the trend of record yields – the average amount paid by a passenger to fly one kilometre – to continue in the short term and sees a roughly 1% rise for fiscal 2025. It pegged PLF at 85% for the same period. However, the crunch would be eased with an addition of 84 aircraft in the current year, taking airlines' overall fleet – including grounded jets – to 812 from 728 as of March, CAPA India CEO Kapil Kaul said at the consultancy's annual summit.<br/>